A day after the first letter,
a second one surfaces
in ChinatownNational Guard preparing
By Crystal Kua and Mary Adamski
Star-BulletinA second call about possible anthrax contamination sent the FBI, police and firefighters to Chinatown about 11:40 a.m. today, blocking off traffic around Hotel and Bethel streets.
"We have a similar incident to what happened yesterday at Ala Moana," said FBI special agent Maxwell Marker, who said it looked like an anthrax scare. "We're treating it as actual (anthrax) till proven otherwise."
About noon, the Chinatown Gateway Plaza on the corner of South Hotel Street and Nuuanu Avenue, across the police substation, was blocked off and crowds were gathering on the streets. Police dispatch said a call was received at 11:38 a.m. asking for officers to come to the scene. Details were sketchy at midday.
But police on the scene said today's scare revolves around a report that mail delivered to a commercial tenant claimed to contain anthrax. The commercial area is next to condominiums.
Tenants were not evacuated, but were temporarily contained within the building, which among other things, houses the city's motor vehicle licensing division.
Firefighters were assisting at the scene but had yet to determine whether anthrax was actually involved, Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said shortly after noon today.
Building manager Robert Lui said he was told by police there was a confirmed report of a suspicious parcel with unknown substances received by the licensing division.
Officials had isolated the entire building, and no one was being allowed in or out as of early afternoon.
A preliminary investigation showed that the envelope received was mailed locally since it bears a local postmark, Soo said.
Yesterday, Honolulu became a target of a nationwide hoax and a federal investigation when a woman opening mail in a physician's office at the Ala Moana Building came upon a powder-filled letter claiming to contain anthrax -- a claim which turned out to be bogus.
"The test results came back negative for anthrax," FBI supervisory agent John Gillies said of yesterday's incident.
"We are investigating this as part of a series of letters that have been distributed (to women's reproductive health centers) on the mainland xxx There are similar circumstances in the writings and in the substance itself."Hundreds were evacuated from the building and six people, including the woman, were stripped, showered and scrubbed before taken by ambulance to Queen's Hospital to be examined as a precaution.
The building was expected to reopen for business today after being closed for more than five hours during the operation.
Anthrax spores produce bacteria that can cause flu-like symptoms if inhaled and can be fatal if not treated quickly.
The Honolulu envelope containing a note and the powder was postmarked in Kentucky. Last week, at least 14 letters postmarked in Lexington, Ky., and claiming to contain anthrax were mailed to abortion clinics across the nation. In each case, the claim was phony.
The one arriving in Honolulu was mailed to the 14th floor office of internist Elsie Blossom Wang.
The envelope was addressed to Wang, but the FBI said that its investigation shows that Wang wasn't the target. "We believe it was the previous tenant that this letter was intended for," Gillies said. The previous tenant of Suite 1400 was Planned Parenthood of Hawaii.
The local organization, now called Family Planning Centers of Hawaii, has clinics on Maui, the Big Island and at 1350 S. King St. Family Planning Centers' Executive Director Barry Raff said the centers have not received calls or letters concerning an anthrax threat.
"Hawaii has been mostly immune," Raff said. "We had a few protesters at the (now closed) Kaneohe site and a few at the Ala Moana site. But they were peaceful. We had some anti-choice mail, like many clinics do, but they are not threatening."
Raff said some other tenants in the Ala Moana building had objected to the clinic being located in the building and it moved more than a year ago.
"When I heard it was Suite 1400, I called the FBI and said that used to be Planned Parenthood's address," he said.
When contacted last night, Wang -- who previously was in the news over her court fight to prevent her patients' medical records from being released to HMSA, declined to comment on the events.
Authorities said the woman who opened the letter did not notice anything suspicious about it.
"It was in an envelope and whatever was in the envelope was a brown substance and it spilled out. It was powdery," Soo said yesterday. "In the note that was part of the envelope, it mentioned anthrax."
After the letter was opened, the 13th, 14th and 15th floors were evacuated, followed later by the remaining floors in the 20-level building mauka of Ala Moana Center.
Among the agencies responding to the scene were the FBI, police, fire units, Civil Defense, the Coast Guard, Tripler Army Hospital biomedical team, American Red Cross and Ala Moana security.
Questions and answers about anthrax: Information on the deadly
disease anthraxWhat is anthrax?
It is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis.
How common is anthrax?
It is most common in animals in agricultural regions of South and Central America, Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
What are the symptoms?
nitial symptoms may resemble a common cold. After several days, the symptoms may progress to severe breathing problems and shock; it usually results in death in one to two days after onset of acute symptoms.
What is the treatment for anthrax?
Antibiotics. Usually penicillin is preferred. To be effective, treatment should be initiated early.
Source: Centers for Disease Control
Firefighters said the woman, who was not identified, was a little "shook up" at not knowing whether the substance was indeed anthrax, but otherwise was fine.
She was taken from the 14th floor to the second floor where showers were available for her to be "decontaminated."
In the parking lot of Bank of Hawaii, which occupies the ground level of the building, the Fire Department set up two decontamination pools near the bank cash machines.
The woman, dressed in a white protective suit, walked to an awaiting ambulance.
Five others who were exposed to the substance came out of the building, undressed behind a screen, washed down with water and soap and donned similar white suits. They included a fire captain who spoke to the woman, the mailman who delivered the letter and three security guards who responded.
All were taken to Queen's Hospital for examination. A hospital spokeswoman said Queen's would release no information, at the instruction of the FBI.
The substance was brought out in a silver can by hazardous materials technicians Chris Ah Mook Sang and Ryan Young, both dressed from head-to-toe in protective gear.
The substance then was taken by police escort to the state Health Department laboratory in Pearl City for testing, which showed that it wasn't anthrax.
Star-Bulletin reporters Susan Kreifels and
Jaymes Song contributed to this report.
National Guard
By Gregg K. Kakesako
getting ready
Star-BulletinThe Hawaii National Guard is preparing to deal with the worst: Weapons of mass destruction as evidenced by yesterday's anthrax scare.
So far, 10 states have been selected to activate 22-member rapid assessment teams of full-time National Guard personnel.
Hawaii was not among the first 10 states selected because it did not have a high threat assessment, high-value targets, and is not close to National Guard lift assets or federal emergency resources.
But Capt. Chuck Anthony, Hawaii National Guard spokesman, said a rapid assessment team in the islands should be in place by the end of the year.
"The soldiers and airmen would support civil authorities in detecting and identifying chemical and biological agents," Anthony said.
Training would probably be held on the mainland, he added.
Biological agents such as anthrax are considered 43 percent of the threat level, according to the FBI. Anthrax is the hardest to detect and the hardest to combat since its effects are not immediately detected.
